Annotated Bibliography - Minor Design Activism : Prompting Change from Within.

Details : Lenskjold, Tau Ulv, et al. “Minor Design Activism: Prompting Change from Within.” Design Issues, vol. 31, no. 4, Oct. 2015, pp. 67–78. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1162/DESI_a_00352.

In this article, the authors discuss the proposed notion of Minor design activism, and how activist design interventions in contemporary co-design practices enable new kinds of dialogue which can challenge the status-quo of design activism. To examine this, they propose the notion of Minor Design Activism which is heavily inspired by the concept of ‘Minoritarian’ by Deleuze and Guattari, which focuses on giving the minority group agency. The authors describe this as a position in co-design engagements that strive to continuously maintain experimentation, challenge and break down these preset ideals and unified agendas imposed by the dominant group by working from within the hegemonic structures. (67)

The authors explore how contemporary co-design practices have generated this new form of design activism by shifting to inviting the end-users into co-creation sessions. This is contrary to the historical background of co-design which had its roots in the Scandinavian Participatory Design from the 1970s, which set out to promote relatively well-defined agendas for the specific marginalised group. The focus has since diverted from political activism to the development of techniques that generate empathy and co-creation sessions. In the past 10 years, some research projects have explored new ways of building social relations such as by rehearsing new work practices, cultural constellations and social routines. This shift from representation to integration has been classified as a notable shift in participatory design from democracy at work to democratic innovation. (68) This helps generate new conversations and as it enables co-designers to better articulate how contemporary participatory design can operate through more collaborative design interventions.

The value of Minor design activism lies in its ability to evolve throughout the process, generating new ideas without being directed by pre-established outcomes. It promotes new insights to the subject by confronting the stratifying organization and challenging the priori organising functions. (67) This allows the demands of the marginalised group to be addressed and for the designers to direct their attention to the more pressing conditions that keep the group stratified and locked into that specific position. By using the example of the housing estates project in Copenhagen, the authors make the point of how by negating pre-existing assumptions, they were able to identify the correct target group for their effective waste handling campaign. Instead of focusing on the members of the formal board who although had more structural power, were not directly involved in the process itself. (74) Their efforts were re-directed towards the children of the estate who were originally assumed incapable through new implementations such as activities and posters, This established a more productive partnership between the local residents and their waste management initiative, resulting in a more effective outcome of the project. Thus by constantly maintaining experimentation, it challenges attempts to stabilise the initial design programme around already unified agendas dictated by the group with more hegemony (67) and in turn empowering the minor.

The authors make clear that in this form of design activism, it is not about the representation of the minor becoming, but about integrating the minor into the process of activism itself. Like social design, minor design activism works together with the marginalised community and requires the engagement of the community itself to spark a change or discussion about the usually negative situation at hand. It re-articulates important issues that may not have been easily accessible to the general public, bringing them to light and solving them. (69) The author uses the example of the Copenhagen neighbourhood library project, where the agenda evolved from just collecting data from the local library children to involving them directly in the process by getting them to make a book out of their stories. (72) As this was performed through the specific set-up in the socio material assembly of a workshop, it can be seen as a minor form of design activism (73) as it engages the minor practices of the children which in turn allowed the project to evolve and re-negotiate their original agenda. Thus showing how by redesigning their approach and integrating the minor, it allows for subtle re-directions in project that allows for more possible futures to produce a more inclusive outcome.

In conclusion, this article is useful as it has provided an analysis of the benefits of designing for the minor through adapting the philosophy of the Minoritarian and how it is translated into design activism. The authors explore how contemporary co-design practices have generated this new form of design activism by shifting its approach, and how the value of Minor design activism lies in its ability to evolve throughout the process. The authors also make clear that in this form of design activism, it is not about the representation of the minor becoming, but about integrating the minor into the intrinsic process of activism itself.

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